The Duke of Paducah

This article is about the country comedian. For the Texas politician with the same nickname, see William S. Heatly. For the city that awards the title, see Paducah, Kentucky.

Whitey Ford, The Duke of Paducah

Benjamin Francis Ford (May 12, 1901–June 20, 1986), known professionally as The Duke of Paducah, was an American country comedian, radio host and banjo player popular from the 1940s to the 1960s.

Ford was born in De Soto, Missouri, and was raised in Little Rock, Arkansas. He had only a third-grade education, so he joked that he came from the "university of hard knocks." He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1918. During his Navy service he learned to play the banjo and earned his nickname Whitey Ford because of his blonde hair. After his discharge in 1922, he joined McGinty's Oklahoma Cowboy Band, a Dixieland jazz group, as a banjo player. The group later changed its name to Otto Gray and his Oklahoma Cowboys and appeared in a few Hollywood film shorts. In 1929, Ford made his debut on WLS-AM in Chicago, Illinois.

In the early 1930s, while working at KWK-AM in St. Louis, Ford took the stage name The Duke of Paducah. In 1937, he founded the Renfro Valley Barn Dance with Red Foley and John Lair. More radio work followed when he became a regular on Plantation Party, an NBC Radio show in Cincinnati and Chicago. From 1942–1959, Ford was a regular on the Grand Ole Opry. He also hosted several popular radio shows broadcast nationally. In the mid 1950s, Ford toured with a troupe he called the Rock and Roll Revue. On several occasions, he shared a bill with Elvis Presley. In 1958, he began hosting a television show, Country Junction, on WLAC-TV in Nashville which ran for a few years.

Ford ended his act with his tagline: "I'm goin' back to the wagon, boys, these shoes are killin' me." He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in February 1986.

References

• at the Country Music Hall of Fame
• Answers.com
• Traditional Country Music Radio
• Elvis Club
• Boards Radio

Persondata
Name	Duke of Paducah
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Short description
Date of birth	1901
Place of birth
Date of death	1986
Place of death